A Review of Starfox 64 3D

Starfox 64 3D, too retro for its own good?By Bryan Travers

Even the most diehard and stubborn Nintendo fan has to admit that the launch line up for the 3DS isn’t quiet going as planned. It started off fantastic with some of the best companies in the industry all coming together in an attempt to put their top franchises on the world’s first fully 3D console. We’re talking Street Fighter, Assassins creed, Starfox, the legend of Zelda, Pokemon and so much more! But with the release date of the 3DS quickly approaching; only Street Fighter was finished on time, with the rest getting delayed until later in the year however some of them are have already come out in the past few months, one of them being Starfox 64 3D. For those of you who don’t know, Starfox 64 3D is a remake of the classic Nintendo 64 game Starfox 64. This game was huge in its time; it’s what’s considered by many to be the best flying simulation game ever made one of the best on rails shooters ever made and even one of the best games ever made. So after seeing the 3DS struggle for the past few months, Nintendo decided to give the 3DS a retro classic, but this time with upgraded visuals, voice acting, audio and A.I. jyug (artificial intelligent). But here’s the problem; back when the original was released you didn’t need to have a long game, an interesting story or a lot of characters, just so long as it was fun, looked descent and had great controls. By today’s standards a “good” retail game should have all those things and a whole lot more, so when Nintendo remade Starfox 64 they really didn’t add much, so right out of the gate it’s at a disadvantage. This also creates another problem, it’ll take you about 1 and a half to 3 hours (depending on your skill level) to beat the final boss in story mode. However the very short story mode mixes it up by having different paths that you can go down depending on how well you did on the previous level, so this means that people who start off okay can do an easier mission, then when they get better they can try the harder mission, but this also means that people who are good at the game have to lose on purpose just to see the whole game. Now that I’m done talking about my issues with the story I can focus on the good, for the 1-2 hours it took me on my first play through I can honestly say that it was one of the greatest experiences on a hand held console I have ever had because it gets so much right. The controls are tight and responsive making it easy to target far away enemies, combining button presses to do the advanced moves is easy by just having you press a few buttons, however it’s not too easy due to the fact that everything is coming straight at you, and you’ll feel like you won’t have enough time, so you’ll just start mowing down your enemies with your laser and you won’t even think twice. Another thing the game does perfect is your speed, you never feel like you’re an easy target because your Arwing is going too slow, but at the same time you never feel like the battlefield is a blur and you have no time to aim at your enemies. Then there’s multiplayer and I would love to say that it makes up for the short story, and that it’s a great experience that you will play over and over again, but I can’t because in my opinion it’s soooo boring. In all honesty other then the time I spent to revisit the multiplayer component so that I could do a better job of describing it for this review, I only spend around 15 minutes here.

One way to describe the multiplayer is by saying that It’s like moving in slow motion in a small room with bookshelves everywhere, each one about 3 feet away from one another while trying to catch a fly. You could be right in front of the fly, swing your arm and if you miss it’ll take about 10 seconds for you to spin around and see him but as you turn, the fly would go to the other side of the room, so now you have to spend the next little while walking up and down the aisles trying to find the fly again. Another way to descried it is by saying that it’s like a dog chasing its own tail because it keeps turning and turning and turning and turning and turning and turning and turning and turning as he/she tries to catch up with it.

Closing statement:

At first this game is a blast (no pun intended) but after a few hours, you’ve honestly seen the whole game. This game is a 7/10.